The rare glimmers of truth from Christie are over. He looked around at who was left among the Republicans. Let's speculate what his thoughts were...

Cruz is a wacko conservative and a snake.

Trump is a loudmouth New Yorker with no policy ideas.

Rubio is maybe the best of who's left, but I insulted the guy a few weeks ago, so I can't go back on that.

Um, um, um...

Trump it is!!!!!

This endorsement is not very convincing to me. But I have to admit that I didn't watch the videos, so maybe Christie sold it to the feeble-minded. I hope Christie ends up writhing in embarrassment well before polling day in November for this little tawdry piece of sucking-up.

“I just don't think that [Trump's] suited to be president of the United States," he told Fox in August. "I don't think his temperament is suited for that and I don't think his experience is."

Plain words. Right you are. Christie.

Not created for this endorsement. Remarkably relevant, though.

Image: memecenter.com

Extras. Also good stuff from Slate, ABC, and especially this from NBC. A co-chair of Christie's campaign (who has a very good outside job) isn't saying good things about Trump or Christie. And a picture too good not to share:

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Stuart Stevens, who didn't run a particularly good campaign for Mitt Romney, thinks he knows how to defeat Trump in the primaries.

First, you attack Trump as a lousy businessman. Uh,,, no. That's a bunch of boring details and back-and-forth. Being a good businessman didn't win anything for Romney, and Trump isn't winning on it either. Being a successful, rich celebrity inflates The Donald's ego, but isn't at all essential to his campaign or his appeal. So Stuart Stevens has this wrong.

Second, you attack Trump for not telling the truth. Ok, but this only works if Trump is clearly a bigger liar than the person making the charge. Trump can call Cruz the biggest liar because Cruz sent out nasty mail in Iowa, his campaign tweeted misleading information about Carson, he attacked Rubio about immigration while lying about his own vulnerability, his website had a doctored photo falsely showing Rubio shaking Obama's hand... and that was only in the last five minutes. So Cruz can't make that accusation about Trump. Maybe Rubio can attack Cruz that way, but only if he's been more honest and stays more honest.

Third, show that Trump doesn't have the temperament to be president. First, you have to make sure voters are paying attention, so you point it out at a debate. Then you insult Trump and get him really angry. Then the voters see that Trump isn't presidential material.

There are some problems with this strategy. You have to get Trump angry without being a total asshole. Possibly, since he's been forewarned, Trump won't take the bait, and he stays even-tempered. Then your argument will backfire. And finally, even if he gets angry and says some obnoxious stuff, how will that be different from 'Mexican rapists' and the other incredibly offensive things he's said that have actually raised his popularity? This might work with a candidate whose selling point isn't being obnoxious. I don't know that it'll work with Trump.

The last suggestions from Stevens are a jumble, which is ironic because you're supposed to accuse Trump of having a jumble of policies, including some leftist ones. (Very funny if GOP candidates would go after one another for having fake health care policies, or tax policies, or budget policies, or foreign policies.)

Finally, you attack Trump with the idea that he can't restore America's pride because he's a potty mouth. There's no way he'll bring dignity to the White House.

Yes, I'm sure so many Americans are so straight-laced that they can never vote for someone like that. I suspect Stevens hasn't listened to rap, or radio, or TV, or teenagers, or 10-year-olds, or anyone younger than 50. I can promise him that we don't talk like Mormons.

Image: wittybitches.com

Extras. It was so much fun writing this as yet another GOP debate took place. Some of the best and/or strangest lines: (Three sources--Bernstein, Mother Jones, and my sweetie's twitter feed.)

Health care is an issue Trump clearly doesn't know anything about. Like pretty much every issue.

Trump now hares off on a spiel about Cruz attacking his sister. He wants an apology. Cruz isn't buying.

Bash: "Getting rid of state lines will solve all our health insurance problems?" Trump: You betcha.

Trump wisely attacks Kasich to keep Rubio & Cruz off his back for another minute.

"I'm relaxed. You're the basket case."

Closed captioning just gave up. [CC: Unintelligible yelling]

And that's where the funny bits slowed down and I lost interest (except for the last two in the list). However, it seems like Trump got creamed. I can hardly wait for the next set of polls and/or primary results.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Trump isn't playing by the old rules where you have to behave with the decorum as a potential president should. He's going a more populist route of 'telling it like it is' and getting his hands dirty. When so few politicians tell any unvarnished truth, these flashes of truth are thrilling.

I cheered when Trump when he said this to Ted Cruz:

"You are the single biggest liar."

I would have loved it even more if Trump had pointed out specific instances when Cruz was a huge liar.

One consequence of this occasional detour into truth-telling is that donors are more worried about putting their money where their political leanings are. For anyone thinking of contributing to an anti-Trump campaign, he may not hesitant to:

Sue you.

Tweet nasty lies about you.

Tweet nasty truths about you.

Tweet nasty photos of you.

Ditto, but concerning your family members too.

Yeah, that might make you pause, and put away your checkbook.

Trump acquired and tweeted pictures of this reporter/anchor

Image: youtube.com

Extra. I missed this. Rubio called Cruz a liar before Trump did, according to this article. I sorely wish I could get onstage at one of these debates and call them all liars, providing details, of course.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

I'm not in a mood to be generous or compassionate to one of the least compassionate people I'd ever seen. I intensely disliked Scalia, and I still do. So I'm glad he's dead and his seat on the Supreme Court will be opening up. It's seems unlikely that someone worse will get to occupy that seat. The next justice probably won't compare loving same-sex relationships to murder.

I won't be forgetting any time soon that Scalia hated the idea of same-sex marriage. I love marriage (thanks to my sweetie and our nearly 40 years together), and I hope and pray other people can experience this happiness. Scalia doesn't mind a bit for such happiness to be denied to whole groups of people. What a bitch! Even people who support him can't make him sound like a nice person, a kind, caring person. He's a fire-breathing dragon, a wicked witch, a mean old man.

And now he's dead. Thank God death triumphs over all of us eventually.

Remembering my friend

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